PRO says Danny Leyva’s goal should have counted

Confirming what many of us suspected all along, the organization that overseas MLS referees said that Alan Kelly erred in disallowing Danny Leyva’s goal last Saturday.

In a review of the situation, Kelly can be heard telling video assistant referee Edvin Jurisevic that “on the field it looks like nothing.” He then requests to see the play at full speed before having it replayed frame-by-frame.

Immediately after the game, Kelly said he believed Justin Dhillon had been careless in leaving his foot in.

Greg Barkey, PRO’s manager of video review, says that the play was properly reviewed and cites how Zac MacMath’s potential injury complicates the situation but calls Dhillon’s contact “incidental.”

“It would be impossible for the referee to judge in live play whether that contact was sufficient enough for MacMath to stay down and defend his goal,” Barkey said. “PRO would prefer that play be stopped when the goalkeeper is down injured, but since it did continue the review is valid. However in this case, the incidental contact did not rise to the level of ‘clear and obvious’ error and the goal should have been allowed to stand.”

While PRO’s admission that a mistake was made won’t fix anything, this is sort of accountability is what fans have long been clamoring for. This seems like a situation that isn’t likely to repeat itself, but at least this one didn’t actually cost the Sounders any points.